OAKLAND -- A mysterious, and expensive, six-week paid family medical leave benefit "mistakenly" included in the tentative BART contract could be a deal breaker in the six-month contract impasse.

Seven of the eight BART board directors attending a late closed session meeting Friday voted to send General Manager Grace Crunican back to the negotiating table to figure a way out of the mess that could cost the transit agency an estimated $44.2 million over four years in one of the costliest scenarios. That's in addition to the rest of the $67 million tentative agreement, which was widely panned for being too rich.

Workers walk the picket line at the Lake Merritt BART station in Oakland on Oct. 21, 2013.
(Kristopher Skinner/Staff file)

Last year, 171 of the 2,301 Service Employees International Union Local 1021 and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 workers took an average of 4.3 weeks off in family medical leave, using accrued sick and vacation time. If the same number of employees took the same amount of time off under the disputed new provision -- which provides six paid weeks off -- the transit agency estimates it would cost $5.8 million over the four-year contract.

If double that number of employees used the enriched benefit for six weeks, the cost would rise to $21.9 million.

If a third of employees took six weeks off, it would reach $44.2 million.

Most of the expense would come from overtime pay to backfill for the employees on leave.

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To BART Director Gail Murray, the estimated cost of those enhanced family medical leave benefits makes the contract "not acceptable as it is."

Other directors, including Joel Keller, also found the cost prohibitive and will face intense public pressure to turn down the contract as is at the next meeting Thursday.

"This could be a very serious financial matter for the district moving forward," Keller said. "It's unfortunate that we've come so far in this process and now we have this stumbling block."

The stunning developments follow six acrimonious months of negotiations, two work stoppages, a pair of worker deaths and a fed-up riding community just healing after months of uncertainty and commute chaos.

Chris Daly of SEIU Local 1021 called the board's decision to revisit the contract "Groundhog Day."

"It's been the story of our lives the last six months," he said.

Antonette Bryant, president of ATU Local 1555, said BART was artificially inflating the provisions costs "beyond recognition."

"A realistic assessment of the cost of this limited leave provision ... would come to only $1.4 million a year," Bryant said in a statement Saturday night. "For BART, that is a drop in the bucket. For workers who lose work time due to catastrophic illness of a child or spouse, however, it could allow them to be there for their families when they are needed most."

"Let's be clear," she continued. "BART management, led by Grace Crunican, is advising the BART board to shut down the Bay Area's transit system over $1.4 million per year. This is the height of incompetence."

It's unclear if the unions will return to the bargaining table.

"We haven't had those conversations yet," Daly said.

Both sides disagree on how the wording was added.

BART says that on July 11, a "temporary employee" erroneously created the disputed tentative agreement. Assistant General Manager Paul Oversier, who signed it along with two other top BART negotiators days later, said third-party "professional note takers" typed up the tentative agreement with the language that management had repeatedly rejected.

"The cause of this incident has been confirmed as a miscommunication-based clerical error during the write-up of a tentative agreement," said BART Director Zakhary Mallett.

But the unions say the language was intended.

"Make no mistake: There was no confusion or glitch in the agreement," Pete Castelli, SEIU 1021 executive director, said in a statement. "Singling out a tentative agreement they prepared and agreed to in July and citing overinflated numbers, BART management is trying to hit the reset button and renege on the agreement that their $399,000 chief negotiator bargained for them."

Just how the language was added is under investigation, BART board President Tom Radulovich said, adding that "any appropriate disciplinary action will be taken."

Chief negotiator Thomas Hock, who throughout the contentious negotiating was a lightning rod for criticism from union leadership, has lost support from the BART board for allowing the family medical leave provision into the final contract.

"I'm very disappointed it happened under his watch," Murray said.

The board's statement Friday made sure to mention that Hock, whose contract had already expired, was "no longer associated with the district" and a new chief negotiator would be found.

One union blamed Hock's "extremely minimalist" approach for confusion, insisting that the BART negotiating team never verbalized opposition to the family medical leave proposal.

"There was no conversation about it," Bryant said, "which, again, was in keeping with Tom Hock's overall approach."